Lateral Visuomotor Distortions and Their Effects on Performance Carry-Over Effects in a Simulated Laparoscopic Environment

Laparoscopic surgery necessitates viewing the target tissue via a camera on a monitor, resulting in a disruption of surgeons’ hand-eye mapping. This disruption is amplified when the camera cannot provide a front view of the target area (i.e., scenarios requiring a side view) relative to the surgeon. Prior research indicates that azimuth camera rotations between 90° and 135° that provide a side view of the target (relative to the operator’s front view) result in the worst performance. In contrast, a 180° view (providing a rear view of the target) results in superior performance relative to side views. This superior performance has been attributed to a comparatively easy axis or movement inversion of the normal hand-eye mapping. The goal for the present study was to assess whether task performance using a right 45° side view of a target area facilitates subsequent performance using a camera location that is rotated 180° from the right 45° side view (i.e., the camera provides a left 135° view). Results indicated that exposure to a right 45° side view did not impact performance at a subsequent camera position that provided a left 135° side view. This indicates that participants could not utilize an axis inversion from the right 45° side view exposure. Additionally, our findings replicated superior performance at the 180° view condition compared to performance observed at the left 135° side view condition, suggesting that participants in the 180° view condition were able to employ the relatively easy axis inversion.